It’s unclear how seriously the Rockies are considering Ottavino as a candidate to run baseball operations. Not only does the 39-year-old not have any front office experience, he is still technically an active player. Ottavino pitched in the Majors with the Yankees last April. He made three appearances before opting for free agency. He spent the remainder of the season as a free agent but has not yet officially announced his retirement.
It was long expected that Ottavino would find a front office or coaching role once he completed his playing career. He was well-versed in using analytics as a pitching development tool. He is also media savvy and has appeared regularly as a guest analyst on the MLB Network in the offseason. Still, it would be shocking if a team hired him as their top decision-maker before he gets any kind of post-play experience.
The Rockies are one of the most insular organizations in sports hiring front office and coaching staffs. They already announced that they would not be promoting this time. Ottavino would be an outside-the-box hire, but he also has close ties to the franchise and to Monfort. He has spent almost half of his MLB career in Denver. He averaged 3.41 over 361 appearances with the Rockies between 2012 and 2018.
Ottavino is personally familiar with the challenges of pitching (and hitting) at Coors Field. He discussed exactly that in one MLB Network Appearance in May. It makes sense that the Rockies would want him in some front office role, but hiring a GM would obviously come with a huge responsibility.
There doesn’t appear to be a clear timetable for the Rockies to install someone at the top of baseball operations. Forman and Sawdaye were the only two known remaining candidates entering today. Ghiroli writes that they were indeed the only two finalists last week. It looks like they’re branching out again now.
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